Formation of well trained operators in the field of interreligious dialogue

It is important to emphasize the need for formation for those who promote interreligious dialogue. If it is to be authentic, this dialogue must be a journey of faith. How necessary it is for its promoters to be well formed in their own beliefs and well informed about those of others. It is for this reason that I encourage the efforts of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue to organize formation courses and programmes in interreligious dialogue for different Christian groups, especially seminarians and young people in tertiary educational institutions.

Benedict XVI,
Address to Participants in the tenth Plenary Assembly of
the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue,
july 7, 2008

    Since its very beginning Shinmeizan has felt the need and the importance of training competent operators for interreligious dialogue. For this purpose, Shinmeizan has organized several brief but intense courses, lasting three days, or a week. 
  The program comprises the study of the fundamental guidelines of the Catholic Church on this matter; visits to temples or headquarters of Shintoism, Buddhism, and other religious traditions; an introduction to the knowledge of the main organizations and groups working in this field, at the local, national and international levels, and about concrete ways to promote interreligious dialogue in its various forms. 
  To this activity for the formation of competent operators in the field of interreligious dialogue belong also other initiatives of Shinmeizan, like the annual courses for young Missionaries recently arrived to Japan, to introduce them to Japanese culture and Japanese religions, as well as the annual courses offered to University Students on "Religion, religions, and interreligious dialogue". And other initiatives aimed at promoting the formation of people with the attitude and the capacity for a fruitful practice of interreligious dialogue. 
   At the academic level, Sr. Maria De Giorgi, of Shinmeizan, teaches annual courses on interreligious dialogue at the Pontifical Gregorian University, as well as specific courses on dialogue between Christianity and Buddhism at the Major Seminary of Reggio Emilia. 
  Although interreligious dialogue is proposed by the official teaching of the Church as an activity to which all Catholics are invited to participate (RM 57) very few are those who have received a sufficient preparation for it. Shinmeizan considers it a priority of its service to this "part of the evangelising mission of the Church" (RM 55) to cooperate to the formation of well trained operators in this field.